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FCC Proposes Changes to Annual EEO Reporting Forms 395-A and 395-B

April 28 , 2008
printable version

            Comments Due: May 22, 2008
            Reply Comments Due: June 6, 2008

The FCC has released a Public Notice seeking comment on proposed revisions to the employment forms that multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”) and broadcasters must complete each year. As you may know, MVPDs (on FCC Form 395-A) and broadcasters (on FCC Form 395-B) had been required to provide information to the FCC regarding the racial and gender breakdown of their employment units with five or more full-time employees by September 30 of each year. The FCC had suspended the filing requirement in 2004 as it awaited the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) to make changes to the racial and employment categories included on its Form EEO-1, the form that all companies with 100 or more employees (not just entities regulated by the FCC) are required to file annually, so that the FCC’s forms would mirror those of the EEOC.

Now that the EEOC has released a new EEO-1 form incorporating revised ethnic and job categories, the FCC is seeking public input on whether it should conform Forms 395-A and 395-B accordingly. However, before the FCC reinstates the requirement to file Forms 395-A and 395-B, it must resolve the separate issue of how to keep the information collected in the forms confidential, in light of the requirement that the forms be placed in cable system and broadcaster public inspection files. Additionally, in the event that the requirement to file Forms 395-A and 395-B is reinstated at the conclusion of this rulemaking, broadcasters and MVPDs may challenge such reinstatement in court on the grounds that the collection and public disclosure of the data could be used to pressure employers to adopt unconstitutional race- or gender-based hiring policies, in violation of two decisions reached by the federal appeals courts for the D.C. Circuit over the past decade.

Comments in this proceeding are due May 22, 2008, and reply comments are due June 6, 2008. Please let us know as soon as possible whether you would like our assistance in preparing comments to be filed at the FCC. In the meantime, we would be pleased to respond to any questions regarding these matters.